Attribution in Slack: what to post and what to skip
Analytics channels get muted for predictable reasons. Four rules about what earns a post, and the single category of update that guarantees people stop reading.
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By Joris van Huët, Founder & CEOUpdated 3 min read
Volume trains people to skip, and once trained they skip the one message that mattered.
Four rules
| Rule | Why |
|---|---|
| Post on a fixed cadence, not on change | Change in a causal estimate is expected and not newsworthy |
| One post, four fields, per channel | Long posts get scrolled past regardless of content |
| Name the widest interval yourself | It teaches the room to read uncertainty |
| Never post without a decision prompt | A number with no question attached is wallpaper |
End every post with the actual question: what should we do about the channel with the widest interval, or is anyone against holding this budget steady for a fortnight.
What never to post
Movement alerts. A causal estimate moves week to week because the underlying data is finite and the window shifts. An alert on movement fires constantly, means nothing individually, and is the single fastest way to get a channel muted.
Alert on the pipeline instead: the job failed, the delivery was late, coverage dropped below the floor.
What to post monthly
What changed since last month, and the one decision on the table.
If nothing material moved, say that in a sentence and post nothing else. A channel that is honest about quiet months earns attention in loud ones.
What to post when something genuinely changes
A threshold crossing agreed in advance. Not "Meta went up", but "Meta's interval now sits entirely above the 2.4 threshold we agreed in March, which is the condition we said would trigger a scaling test".
Agreeing thresholds in advance is also what stops the numbers being relitigated afterwards, which is covered in the lift number your agency will accept.
How to build it
The three options are compared in putting attribution results into Slack or Notion.
Before you build
Post it by hand for two cycles and see whether anyone replies. Replies are the signal that the format is right. Silence means fix the format, not the delivery mechanism. The first read costs €99 on a Google Analytics export, refundable within 30 days, no questions asked.
Related answers
Frequently asked questions
Why do analytics Slack channels get muted?
Because they post things that require no response. Volume trains people to skip, and once trained they skip the message that mattered. Every post should carry a decision prompt, or it is wallpaper regardless of how good the number is.Should I alert when an attribution number changes?
No. A causal estimate moves week to week because the data window shifts, so a movement alert fires constantly and means nothing individually. Alert on the pipeline instead: job failure, late delivery, or coverage falling below your floor.What makes a threshold alert worth reading?
That the threshold was agreed before the data arrived. A post saying an interval now sits entirely above a number the team set in March is genuinely informative.
Go deeper: Incrementality testing, explained.
Sixty-second versions of these ideas: Causality Engine on YouTube Shorts.
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Keep reading
Terms in this article
- AnalyticsAnalytics is the systematic computational analysis of data. It reveals customer behavior and measures campaign performance.
- AttributionAttribution identifies user actions that contribute to a desired outcome and assigns value to each. It reveals which marketing touchpoints drive conversions.
- Attribution ReportAttribution Report shows which touchpoints or channels receive credit for a conversion. It identifies which campaigns drive desired actions.
- Google AnalyticsGoogle Analytics is a web analytics service that tracks and reports website traffic.
- ShopifyShopify is an ecommerce platform for creating online stores and selling products. Attribution modeling shows which marketing channels drive traffic and conversions within Shopify.